The Jets can’t alibi the fact that their secondary has twice as many touchdowns allowed this preseason as passes intercepted. They can’t ignore the reality of watching Giant quarterbacks torch their secondary for almost 400 yards in their final

pre-season game Friday night. But nobody involved is ready to push the panic button yet, insisting they’re not that far from returning to their old stingy selves of last season.

Cornerback Marcus Coleman claims the issue is more mental than physical. He says the Jets’ individual personnel is good enough to do the job, and they understand the defensive scheme; now they just need to get all the new faces blended with the old and put the whole thing together before the season opener Sept. 3 in Green Bay.

“We should be good, real good. I think we’re about there, to tell you the truth,” Coleman said. “We have everything in. We’re running the same thing [as] last year. We did add some new people, new faces, but at the same time the majority of us are still there. We know how to play with each other. It’s just a matter of getting used to the new wrinkles, and I think we’ve done that. When we get down to it, we’ll be ready to go.

“Everybody’s on the same page. You’ve just got to get used to [new defensive coaches]. They’re new, we’re new. They don’t know what we’re used to, and we don’t know what they’re used to. You’ve just got to adjust. That’s how life is. That’s how the game is. I think we’ve done that, and we’re ready to move forward.”

They’d better move forward, because what’s behind them hasn’t looked all that good. Omar Stoutmire, Kevin Williams and Scott Frost are all vying for the free safety job, and none has stepped up to grab it. Stoutmire started five games there last year and entered camp as the nominal frontrunner, but in his second pre-season start he appeared at least partly culpable in all three of the Giants’ TD passes.

“I don’t think it’s quite solidified itself over the course of four games as I hoped it would. Omar was one of a couple of players back in the secondary who I’m sure would’ve liked to play a little bit sharper,” Al Groh said after his Jets gave up 392 passing yards. Since then they’ve cut CB Otis Smith, gotten starter Aaron Glenn practicing again after an ankle injury, and started their two-week preparation for Brett Favre and the Packers.

“It helps with injuries, and it helps if you’ve got things you want to work on, to try and perfect,” said Glenn, who reports he’s still sore but can play. “You’ve got two weeks to really get that down. I’m trying to get certain parts of my game down that I don’t think are right yet.”

And Williams – who has one of the Jets’ three INTs – admits the bye is boring, but that “It’s good to have these weeks to brush up on fundamentals and the things we need to work on.”

They have much to work on. The sight of Amani Toomer’s 73-yard post pattern, Stoutmire getting over late on Ike Hilliard’s 10-yard TD, and Joe Jurevicius’ score with 15 seconds left taught viewers more about life on an island than that CBS show that ended last night. And while the Jets admit their schemes have been vanilla – especially in their Aug. 4 loss at Green Bay, not wanting to show too much before the rematch – Coleman says that’s no excuse for poor play.

“We’ve still got to play. We’ve still gotta go out and make plays, be the defense that we know we can be and that we’ve shown in the past. It’s just a matter of us individually knowing our assignments, and then coming together and doing it at the same times. That’s really the only thing that hasn’t occurred,” said Coleman, who’s looking forward to being tested by Favre and Drew Bledsoe in the first two weeks.

“Hell yeah, for sure. That’s part of the game. That’s part of being a competitor. That’s what you want; you want to face the best right off the bat. Why not? It’ll be a real good test. Two great quarterbacks back-to-back; it’ll be a test for us. We’ll see what we can do.”